Chevrolet & SAIC come together for a joint-venture plant in Thailand

MANILA: To cater to the demand of the Thai and other international automobile markets with most probably the Philippines as well, Chevrolet and SAIC have come together for a new joint-venture plant in Thailand that will produce the next-generation Chevrolet Captiva. Moreover, it will not only be the Captiva that will be manufactured at the new plant but also the second-generation Orlando and Tracker. The new Chevrolet and SAIC-GM-Wuling (SGMW) plant will also enable American automaker to expand its model lineup in China along with making the availability of the all-new Captiva in various international markets a not so difficult task.

Coming on to the production of the all-new Chevrolet Captiva at the new plant, similar to the Colorado and Trailblazer, manufacturing of the SUV will continue to follow the “Built-In Quality” or BIQ principle. The BIQ process is quite different than the conventional "quality inspected in" method followed by most of the automakers around the world. Issues related to the quality of inspectors and their ability to identify defects and problems are also eliminated thanks to Chevrolet's BIQ methodology. Furthermore, the new joint-venture has also initiated a new journey where the two American and Chinese automakers will share production lines and an array of technologies.

In case you are not familiar with the all-new Chevrolet Captiva, the SUV is based on the Baojun 530 and gets multiple state-of-the-art features like LED headlamps, spacious interior, comfortable seven-seat setup, panoramic sunroof, large vertically stacked touchscreen infotainment system, and much more. On the mechanical front, the next-gen Chevrolet Captiva gets a 1.5-litre turbocharged engine that produces 148 hp of maximum power and a peak torque of 250 Nm. A CVT takes care of the power delivery duties. Apart from the 1.5-litre motor, the SUV also comes with the Jeep Compass' 2.0-litre turbodiesel engine in some other markets around the globe.